Alta Environmental Center

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Alta Environmental Center Our mission is Sustainability - To protect and improve the well being of Alta's environment, ski industry and community.

The AEC is Alta Ski Area's sustainability department and this is our philosophy – as we pursue Our Mission:
We believe an efficient, profitable ski area is a necessary foundation to support many worthy environmental efforts. The Alta Environmental Center will guide these efforts towards sustainability and will look after the natural environment in which we operate. Our skiers, as part of our economic and social foundation, look to us to be stewards of national lands. We--Alta employees--will use the Environmental Center to help us be better stewards in our life and in our positions at Alta. The Environmental Center will work to have our departments, employees, and skiers do the work and share in the ownership, implementation and success of projects and programs. Our process in guiding us towards sustainability and a higher standard of project selection will include our "triple-triple" bottom line analysis. Along with our internal efforts, we will look at our local, national and world communities and environments to see where and when we may be part of broader efforts for the common well-being.

Some of our favorite days on the mountain are when Alta employees from across departments step away from their daily rou...
10/13/2026

Some of our favorite days on the mountain are when Alta employees from across departments step away from their daily routines to join the AEC for a morning of restoration. These days give us a chance to gab and give back to the land that brings us all together.

Click the link in our bio to read about this summer’s Employee Conservation Days and the incredible restoration work these crews accomplished. 🌱💚

Another 10,525 native plant seedlings found their forever home across Alta’s slopes this summer. 🌱Since 1991, Alta has p...
09/29/2026

Another 10,525 native plant seedlings found their forever home across Alta’s slopes this summer. 🌱

Since 1991, Alta has planted 131,064 native plants across the ski area as part of an extensive land restoration program. As this work continues, we look forward to growing, learning and connecting with our community while protecting and preserving this magical place we call home.

Here’s a small glimpse of the plants, places and people at the heart of this year’s restoration efforts. 💚

Last Saturday, 50 volunteers joined members from the AEC, Cottonwood Canyons Foundation and TreeUtah on the slopes to he...
09/18/2026

Last Saturday, 50 volunteers joined members from the AEC, Cottonwood Canyons Foundation and TreeUtah on the slopes to help plant 1,000 Engelmann spruce saplings during our annual Tree Planting Day. 🌲

Since 1991, nearly 44,000 native tree saplings have been hand planted across the mountain—continuing a proud reforestation tradition that is deeply rooted in Alta’s history.

Thank you to everyone who volunteered their Saturday morning to help keep our forest healthy. These efforts are made possible with the support and helping hands of our incredible community.

Stay tuned for more reflections from this year’s tree planting day. 🪏🌱

📸: Adam Fehr

The ermine—aka the short-tailed weasel—is one of Alta’s smallest yet fiercest hunters. 🐭Don’t let its small, hot-dog sha...
09/09/2026

The ermine—aka the short-tailed weasel—is one of Alta’s smallest yet fiercest hunters. 🐭

Don’t let its small, hot-dog shape fool you—this little predator can scale trees, cruise through water, scramble over rocks and navigate dense vegetation in pursuit of its next meal. Ermines mainly eat small rodents but can take down prey twice their size, including rabbits!

Ermines are fiercely territorial, one-weasel wolf packs—using their scent, teeth, agility and surprising vocal range to ward off intruders. Only during mating season in late spring do they briefly tolerate one another before going their separate ways. It’s giving emotionally unavailable. 🫶

They’re also masters of camouflage, swapping their summer-brown coat for white in winter. Triggered by changing daylight rather than temperature, the seasonal molt can take up to two months—leaving some ermines looking a little “seasonally confused” along the way.

📸: Rocko Menzyk

Once a month, we invite our co-workers across departments to join us on the slopes for Employee Conservation Day. On Aug...
09/03/2026

Once a month, we invite our co-workers across departments to join us on the slopes for Employee Conservation Day.

On August 27th, our crews gathered along the old Supreme lift line to spend some quality time together and restore disturbed habitat. After a full morning of digging and planting, we wrapped things up with some well-deserved Chipotle and a mandatory nap—kidding.

Not really... 😴

But before the siesta could begin, we got quite a bit in the ground:

🌱 392 native plant seedlings�🌲 49 Aspen trees�🌲 57 Douglas fir trees
🌲 30 Engelmann spruce trees from our nursery—harvested in the summer of 2025�
That’s 136 trees, 392 native plants, plenty of dirt under the fingernails and a day well spent taking care of the place that brings us all together.

Read more about our monthly summer employee conservation efforts: https://www.alta.com/stories/employee-planting-days

Some of our favorite colors of Albion Basin 🌼🎨✨
08/26/2026

Some of our favorite colors of Albion Basin 🌼🎨✨

This past winter, we encouraged our skiers to reload, reuse and recycle their ski passes—collecting a whopping 95.71 lbs...
08/24/2026

This past winter, we encouraged our skiers to reload, reuse and recycle their ski passes—collecting a whopping 95.71 lbs of plastic. 💳♻️

Ski passes are a significant yet often overlooked source of waste in the industry. And while our collection represents only a small portion of the plastic waste generated by ski passes, it sheds light on a larger issue.
 
We’ve done some self-reflection and data analysis—and here’s where we start. Physical passes remain vital to our current operations, but we can focus on our messaging, explore alternative media types and rethink how we present information on our passes. These may seem like small changes, but they’re steps in the right direction. Our goal is to keep learning and evolving toward a more sustainable option.
 
The collected passes are heading to TerraCycle US, where they’ll be shredded and transformed into new products, with RFID chips recycled properly. Thank you to everyone who helped reduce plastic waste this winter. As you prepare for next season, remember to reload or recycle your cards.

Sustainability is a community effort. We ask for people and organizations to share their experiences with plastic waste in the comments, DM or by email to help further our efforts. 🌱

Address

Highway 210 Little Cottonwood Canyon
Alta, UT
84092

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm
Saturday 8am - 5pm
Sunday 8am - 5pm

Telephone

(801) 832-1700

Website

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